My name is Rodwell and the story of my life is one about the power of sponsorship, mentorship and people who are willing to go the extra mile to propel a young black person forward.

I was born in Zimbabwe. My parents were doing well for themselves, as they had worked to build themselves comfortable middle-class lives and they were happy.  They were surrounded by the people they loved – the “village” that would help them raise their children – they had reached steady strides in their respective careers, and they had their whole lives ahead of them.

My parents made the decision to move to the UK in 2002, when I was four.

They could have thrived in Zimbabwe with their aptitude, survival instincts and strong networks.  Instead, they moved their entire lives to the UK.  They reskilled – my father trained as a teacher and my mother became a nursing-home carer.

I could see that moving was not easy for them, and as a child I often wondered why on earth they did this to themselves. They moved because they considered the prospect of their children leading happier lives with more open doors greater in the UK, than in the land they called home.  They moved here for me.

When I decided I wanted to be a commercial lawyer, my parents were worried.  Not because they didn’t think I had it in me to be a good lawyer, nor because they didn’t think the profession was respectable. They struggled to accept my decision because they thought that the road into a commercial law career was difficult. They had read about many bright, intelligent and capable graduates who had struggled for years to obtain a training contract or pupillage and eventually gave up on their dreams.

They had also read that the chances of this happening to me were exponentially higher, being a black male, first generation immigrant. In the move here, they lost their “village” and their new network didn’t have any lawyers that could support me through my journey.  It was a huge risk on their part, a risk they took to guarantee me a future.

Fast forward – now I am a newly qualified Freshfields corporate associate, having just completed my six-month secondment to our Abu Dhabi office. I am the product of my parents’ sacrifice and my own risk taking.  But converting my risk into a reward was a process that involved “game-changing” moments, which involved the support of other people and reinforced in me the importance of mentorship and a good network of certain supportive individuals.

  1. A doctor friend of our family, Dr. Jeff, who had a real passion for mentoring and encouraging young people to believe in themselves. We were part of a small church and he would organise programmes for young people to present on topics we found interesting which did wonders for building my confidence and public speaking skills.  He was not a lawyer himself, but one of the people that managed to convince my parents that it was possible for me to succeed in law – he would often say to my father, “ Ndengeya, Rodwell can do anything, he just needs our support”.  Dr. Jeff passed away while I was at university, so he never got to see me live out his words fully. I believe every young person needs a ‘Dr. Jeff’ – someone to affirm that young person’s potential and can support their case, especially in immigrant families where career conversations can be very difficult.
  2. One of my teachers, Mrs Burton, knew that I wanted to become a commercial lawyer and told her husband, a lawyer. He suggested a legal apprenticeship that an international law firm was running out of their Birmingham office, which she encouraged me to apply for. She convinced him to come in after school help me prepare for the assessment.  I narrowly missed the apprenticeship but the experience was helpful because it taught me how to navigate assessment centres.  The firm also offered work experience, so I went into my first year of university already having secured a week’s work experience at an international law firm. I would never have known about the opportunity if it was not for Mrs Burton, nor performed as well as I did at the assessment if she had not leveraged her own network (granted, he is her husband) to help me prepare.  Everybody needs a Mrs Burton.
  3. At university, Drs. Patel and Cash identified me as a potential candidate for the Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship and provided me all the information and support I needed to make a successful application. Even after securing the Scholarship, they continued to support me as mentors and guides.  They, along with other tutors within my law school, were instrumental in my academic success.
  4. The Stephen Lawrence Scholarship was probably the biggest game-changer. The driving force behind the programme, within Freshfields, is Annette Byron and if you ever meet a scholar, each one of us have our own stories of how Annette changed our lives.  The Scholarship was my first introduction to a City firm and the first time that I started to believe that I could aim for the very top.  I was exposed to the legal world in greater detail than I had ever been before and my Freshfields, Goldman Sachs and Bank of England mentors all played pivotal roles in helping me form my understanding of the kind of lawyer I wanted to be.  They also helped me to normalise the idea of myself in an impressive City career in my mind. This confidence, coupled with the excellent skills development component of the programme and Annette’s inspiration to strive for greatness, helped me secure my training contract with Freshfields. The scholarship was made possible because Annette was willing to drive it forward within the firm. The scholarship was made successful because of the many volunteer mentors who came forward and offered to sponsor the success of young black men with an interest in law.

Ultimately, though I did not have the original “village” that my parents imagined, I am where I am today because of another “village” – another network of people who sponsored my journey into law.  Tomorrow’s black lawyers need more people who are willing to sponsor their journeys.  They need more Annettes, more Dr. Jeffs, more Dr. Patels and Dr. Cashs, more Mrs Burtons and more mentors. Tomorrow’s lawyers need more people who are willing to drive the change and more people who are willing to be a part of it.

Rodwell Ndengeya is a corporate associate at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer